Amazon is bringing Alexa to the workplace

Amazon announced on Thursday that its digital voice assistant will soon book appointments and take office calls as part of a new service called Alexa for Business.

The push aims to extend the online giant’s wide lead over rivals like Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana as competition heats up in a market that analysts say could transform the way people interact with technology.

In addition to all the same functions that Alexa performs through home Echo devices—temperature adjustments, light settings, kitchen management—Amazon is working with a variety of enterprise companies like video conferencing firm Polycom and travel and expensing system Concur to design work-specific tasks. Companies can also build their own through Amazon’s developer platform. Read more…